This invention relates to an electronic money system, an electronic money terminal device and an information card, and is applicable to an electronic money system, an electronic terminal device and an information card which are used in such a manner that money data is stored in the information card.
Heretofore, when the user uses a cash card and/or a credit card which are issued by a bank, a credit company and others, clerk working for a store which equips a card terminal device for receiving these cards makes the card terminal device read the card number which has been stored in the magnetic stripe of the card, and also inputs a sum of money which is to be paid at this time.
At this time, the card terminal device connects a communication line to the management computer of the bank or the credit company, and transmits information of the card number, the sum of money utilized, and others. The management computer of the bank or the credit company manages whether each user's cash card or credit card is in a past-due state or not, whether it has reached the limit of utilizable money or not, whether there is a report of loss of the card, etc., and on the basis of the information of the card number, the sum of money utilized which has been sent from the card terminal device via the communication line, the management computer judges whether the use of the card should be allowed or not. When the card is judged to be usable, the management computer of the bank or the credit company returns the use allowance information of the card to the card terminal device of the origin of the transmission, and performs withdrawing process of the utilized sum of money from the specified account of the card.
By the way, in such a system that uses a cash card or a credit card, it is needed to transmit an approval request for using the card to the management computer of the bank or the credit company from the card terminal device whether the user intends to use the card, and there has been a problem in that the process of using a card is complicated because the connection processing of the communication line is needed.